For physical keyboard holdouts on T-Mobile, unless you opt for a refurbished year-old myTouch Q or venture into the tenuous world of BlackBerry, the last remaining option is the LG Optimus F3Q ($312 up front or $13/month for 24 months). It's essentially the same phone as the LG Enact on Verizon, with the same low-end specs and chunky build, but the keyboard's been tweaked to match the look of T-Mobile's legacy myTouch Q. The F3Q is a serviceable Android option, but it's not a particularly good value, especially if you aren't a diehard physical keyboard fan.

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Design, Keyboard, and Call QualityAt 4.82 by 2.55 by 0.55 inches (HWD) and 6.41 ounces, the F3Q is a chunky little phone considering its relatively modest 4-inch display. It's covered in glossy plastic with an inlaid checkered pattern that's reminiscent of the LG-made Nexus 4. Volume and Power buttons are on the left and right edges, respectively, but they're uncomfortably flush and difficult to find at first. The back pops off to reveal a rather beefy 2,460mAh battery.

All that added thickness helps accommodate the slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It's got the same layout as the Enact, with a full number row and navigation arrows, but the design sees some notable changes. The keys are flatter and more oblong, instead of the Enact's sloping, more-angular keys—it feels more like a membrane remote control, which I'm not really a fan of. Feedback is still nice and clicky, though, and the keys are spaced well enough.

I tested in New York City and found call quality to be sufficient, but nothing spectacular. Earpiece volume is loud, but distorts at top volumes. Transmissions through the mic are easy to understand, though deeper voices tend to sound a bit muddy. I noticed a slight hiss on calls, which was worse when making calls in noisy environments. The back ported speakerphone gets loud enough for outdoor use, but its position makes it easy to cover with your hand.

Performance and AndroidPowering the F3Q is a dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor with 1GB RAM. That's par for the course for entry-level smartphones these days, but there's one glaring deficiency here: The F3Q comes with only 1.27GB of storage available to users out of the box. That was enough for us to install our usual array of benchmarking apps, but not enough to install even one high-end game like Asphalt 8. There's a microSD card slot under the back cover, and our 64GB SanDisk card worked fine, but you can't move app installs to external storage. The F3Q felt generally smooth in day-to-day usage, with the typical lag associated with lower-end phones—you'll notice pauses between pressing icons and apps launching and the app drawer itself will take a moment to populate. Web browsing performance is average, and games like Temple Run 2 play smoothly.

The F3Q is running Android 4.1.2 with LG's Optimus UI. That's three versions behind the latest Android and I wouldn't count on consistent updates going forward. Surprisingly, QSlide, one of the bright spots in the otherwise overwrought skin, makes an appearance here, letting you run a floating app on top of another app. I was able to load up Google Maps in the background and a small browser window on top without issue. T-Mobile adds its typical bundle of pre-loads, including Caller ID, Visual Voicemail, and T-Mobile TV apps.

Camera and ConclusionsThe 5-megapixel rear-facing camera is serviceable at best, churning out below-average shots in basically all but ideal lighting scenarios. Images lack detail and focus almost always landed on the soft side. In low light, images become grainy and riddled with noise, while slower shutter speeds leave shots looking blurry. Video tops out at 1080p, but frame rates are hardly consistent, jumping around from 20 to 30 frames per second. The 1-megapixel front-facing camera will suffice for selfies or quick Hangout video chats in a pinch, but even those stretch its capabilities.

The LG Optimus F3Q is a decent keyboarded Android phone, but if you don't absolutely need a physical keyboard, there are much better options for your money on T-Mobile. You can grab the Nexus 5 direct from Google for $350, or buy it through T-Mobile for 24 monthly payments of $16.50, which is just $3.50 more per month than the F3Q. The Optimus F6 currently goes for $240, and it's a sizeable upgrade over the Optimus F3, which is the F3Q sans keyboard. Keyboard diehards will be satisfied with the F3Q, but just know you're paying a pretty hefty premium for the privilege of physical keys on an otherwise mediocre smartphone.

Before joining the consumer electronics team at PCMag, Eugene worked at local news station NY1 doing everything from camera work to writing scripts. He grew up in Montclair, New Jersey and graduated from the University of Virginia in 2010. Outside of work Eugene enjoys TV, loud music, and making generally healthy and responsible life choices.
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